Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Broken_Clock who wrote (424846)	9/6/2013 10:42:43 AM
From: ggersh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 436258

UFB.....doesn't begin to describe this Christina Wilkie Become a fan christina.wilkie@huffingtonpost.com Abu Ghraib Torture Victims Ordered To Pay U.S. Contractor's Legal Fees Posted: 09/06/2013 9:12 am EDT \| Updated: 09/06/2013 9:16 am EDT WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Wednesday ordered four Iraqis who were imprisoned at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison to pay nearly $14,000 in legal fees to defense contractor CACI, an Arlington, Va.-based company that supplied interrogators to the U.S. government during the Iraq War. The decision in favor of CACI stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the former prisoners in 2008, alleging that CACI employees directed the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The suit was dismissed in June, when U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled that because the alleged acts took place on foreign soil, CACI was "immune from suit" in U.S. court. Lee did not, however, directly address the question of whether CACI employees took part in the mistreatment of prisoners. The treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib exploded into an international scandal in 2004, when shocking photos emerged of prisoners being stacked on top of each other, threatened with dogs, and sexually abused. A little over a month after winning the dismissal this summer, CACI requested that the former prisoners be ordered to pay $15,580 to cover the company's legal expenses. Lawyers for the Iraqis disputed that their clients should pay CACI's bills, partly because the Iraqis had "very limited financial means, even by non-U.S. standards, and dramatically so when compared" to CACI, according to a court filing. Moreover, they wrote, the initial claims against CACI, involving "serious claims of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and war crimes were dismissed on very close, difficult -- and only recently arguable -- grounds." Attorneys for the Iraqi prisoners have said they plan to file an appeal of the June dismissal this fall. CACI did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling. The massive defense contractor has long denied allegations that its employees abused or directed others to abuse prisoners at Abu Ghraib. A statement on CACI's website notes that "Neither CACI nor any of its employees have been found or proven to be involved in" or "participated in" or "charged" with abuse, nor have they been indicted for "directing abuse." In 2008, CACI’s executive chairman, J. Phillip "Jack" London, wrote a book in defense of the company titled Our Good Name: A Company's Fight to Defend Its Honor and Get the Truth Told About Abu Ghraib.